posted March 9, 2023
The Nigeria’s electoral commission, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has resolved to postpone the Governorship and State Assembly elections earlier slated for next Saturday March 11, by one week to March 18, 2023.
DDNews learnt that the electoral umpire had been holding an emergency meeting since Wednesday afternoon, chaired by the Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and Commissioners in response to a judicial pronouncement that affected the logistics plans of the Commission.
The decision by INEC to postpone the elections is a direct consequence of Wednesday’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja granting it permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices of the court, they held that stopping the electoral umpire from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect the processes of governorship and State Assembly elections.
The Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, had approached the court and sought to prevent the reconfiguration of the BIVAS, saying it was a key to unlock some of the alleged manipulations that they claimed denied them victory in the February 25 presidential election.
However, the court denied the relief being applied for by Obi, saying it would amount to “tying the hands of the Respondent, INEC”.
After the positive judgment in their favour, INEC promptly called for an emergency meeting of the top principals of the commission to determine the way forward to ensure a seamless process.
More so, the commission had earlier averred that over 170,000 BVAS machines were deployed to polling units for the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, and usually, “It will take time, up to five clear days to reconfigure about 170,000 BVAS machines before Saturday, noting that the time is too short,” claimed an insider.
This report may be updated.